Cooking with children

A question about : Cooking with children

Need some help please :-)......I work as a Teaching Assistant in a Primary School, and I appear to have been allocated a little cooking group.....although Baking and Cooking are not really my thing !! ....I would really appreciate some ideas on some simple recipes, I have about a 30 minute time slot....I start it on Friday...so no pressure

Best answers:

• Roast them? cant eat a whole one myself but Im sure you could freeze.
  Lol seriously
  how about some home made pizzas where they can put whatever fillings they like on?
  cakes and biscuits always go down well
  meat balls/burgers - squishy hands in the mince will be fun for them
  https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/c...n/kids-cooking
• I think it was Greg Wallace who made really simple cheese straws last week on his BBC programme with a packet of puff pastry, grated cheese and seasoning.
  Puff pastry cut into triangles, sprinkled with chocolate chips and rolled up like croissants.
  Jam tarts using shortcrust pastry.
  Cornflake crispies.
• I'm sure some great ideas will be along in a minute. Can I just please ask a favour, on behalf of the parents whose kids you will be teaching?
  Please do not use a half hour cookery lesson to stick two rich tea biscuits together with jam and dribble runny icing on top - I speak from experience here. Most parents would be grateful if you make something with them that is really simple, but perhaps encourages them to try something new.
  What did work with my little one was that they all made sandwiches and got to eat them. The only rule was that they had to choose three fillings with which to make the sandwich, eg., cheese, sweetcorn, grated carrot, cucumber, lettuce etc. Now that was great. Peer pressure encouraged the more picky kids, it was healthy, and they each drew a little picture to show their parents what they had made, and eaten.
• Do you have to cook it during the lesson, or can they take home something ready to bake?
  If you can do something to send home ready to bake, I make gnocchi bake with my daughter and it's something she's made on her own (I do the oven bit) since she was tiny.
  Bag of gnocchi, tomato based sauce tub, some chopped/torn up peppers, chopped/torn mushroom, all mixed together...and finally topped with some torn up mozzerella. Shove in the oven for about 25mins.
• How much of a coincidence are the above two posts?
  You couldn't make that up if you tried!
  Sorry Willowtop, not yours! Mine and DigForVictory!
• My child, who is five likes making, as others have said, burgers, and pizzas.
  we sometimes, instead of making the pizza with normal base, use a large naan bread for a base, and then add tomato paste and whatever topping we have to hand.
  Also cakes always go down well and are quick and easy to make. whether the cornflake variety or sponge. Then we let him decorate it with icing, hundreds and thousands and the like.
  Also have a look at 'I can cook' on the cbeebies website, son also likes making some of the things they make there. They don't take long either.
• check out what you're allowed to use (I think meat products and eggs may be restricted unless you have a food hygiene certificate)
  You haven't said how old the children are but...
  There are lots of things you can do that the children will think of as cooking!!
  Icing biscuits (I made number bond biscuits with my Reception class, digestive biscuits, some icing made with icing sugar and water, strawberry lace down the middle, different numbers of smarties on each side to make 10)
  Top hat biscuits, digestive biscuits, melted chocolate, marshmallow on top with a chocolate button or a smartie stuck on with more melted chocolate
  Fruit kebabs drizzled with melted chocolate
  Fruit salad with diet lemonade so the fruit doesn't go brown (serve it into small cups cover with cling film and children can take it home to eat
  Toast! With different topping
  Pizza on English muffins, split, spread tomato sauce, children add toppings and cheese, then grill (or microwave for 20 seconds to melt cheese)
  Pizza on toasted bread
  Split mini pitta bread and children can fill them with their own choice of filling (grated carrot, grated cheese, sweetcorn, sliced hame)
  vegetable soup (add a tin of tomatoes to lots of chopped veggies and boil)
  hot dogs
  rocky road (chop up any choccie bars and add melted chocolate, press into a tin and refrigerate)
  chocolate rice krispie cakes (milk, white or a mixture of chocolates)
  scores heat marshmallows on kebab sticks over a tea light them squash between 2 chocolate biscuits then eat!!!
  Hope that helps
• I think healthier snacks are a good choice as not only does it encourage cooking/baking but is a good skill to encourage healthier eating I know its primary school but theres a lot of difference in terms of if its Ks1 or Ks2 but I would do split pizzas on wholemeal bread or wholemeal pittas. maybe even pinwheel sandwiches ( bread with the fillings rolled up into a round and sliced with healthy fillings). Cake are good but I personally would use the opportunity to do something a bit different. If they are older you could do a project such as brownies with a traditional method one week then half wholemeal/ low sugar/low fat grating carrot in etc variations over coming weeks so they can appreciate substitution and if it affects taste and healthiness of product.
• Karen,this is just up my street!I spent years as a TA and have used cooking on a weekly basis.It's a fantastic resource the children get so much out of it.
  How many children will you have and which year?Also do you have any resources , an oven? What is the learning objective?
  Cooking can be tailored to any subject.
  I never made anything with meat or nuts even though I do have a fist full of hygiene certificates etc.
  My LA also had guidelines on healthy eating which I gave a nod to.
  I always made real food and avoided cakes and biscuits with the exception of Christmas cakes and ginger bread houses.
  The very best of luck,any help you need just ask.
  Vx
• Chicken nuggets made on the TV the other night.
  cut up pieces of fresh of chicken, rolled in beaten egg, and rolled in breadcrumbs or egg and then finely crushed cornflakes,
  baked on a tray for 15 minutes. No additives that you get in the bags of frozen stuff.
• Hi, I too am a TA who is cooking every week with a child with SEN, who absolutely loves it and it's far more useful as a life skill than her sitting learning about subordinate clauses, inference and adverbs!
  Anyway, so far we have made cheese straws, chocolate crispy cakes, pizza, cookies, pasta salad, malteser cake, scones. The plan for next term includes fruit salad, flapjacks, sandwiches and soup. I just search for simple recipes that I know we can make in our time slot of an hour, also something that can easily be transported home with her and that she will like. I buy the ingredients and bring all the equipment in and off we go. Good luck!
• My favourite cooking lesson was when I was 6 or 7. our teacher was brilliant, she was a bit of a hippy type. We made stone soup. She read us the story 'stone soup' it's an old folk story about sharing. Then we made the soup, It's just veg soup, cooked with a stone in the pan. We all prepared different veg, I think I chopped up some tinned toms. It tasted amazing, even to a picky eater like me. We all loved it and my friends would still talk about it, even at high school, years later.
• These are so easy to make and you can add loads of different things so the Kids can personalise them
  https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013...cious-add-ins/
• This is also a good site with healthy snack recipes
  https://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/20...pretzel-bites/